


What Doesn't Kill You

by TheXWoman



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Angst, Episode: s10e01 Flesh and Blood, Gen, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-08-06
Updated: 2006-08-06
Packaged: 2018-05-18 12:37:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5928802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheXWoman/pseuds/TheXWoman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wondered in those nights if her eyes would be dark like mine, or if she would have the clear, empty eyes of the Ori.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Doesn't Kill You

**Author's Note:**

> Challenge: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

_So what next?_

Daniel and I are sitting in the canteen. He's avoiding me, but he has scooped up the same spoonful of Jell-O three times now and has yet to meet my eyes. I'm tugging on a strand of hair as I stare down at half-eaten pie. The mess hall buzzes around us, flashes of green and blue streak past the corner of our eyes.

He finally sets down his spoon.

"Vala, about Adria-"

"No," I wave my hand. The fork rattles loosely in my fingers and slips to the tabletop. The sharp smack of metal against ceramic cuts the air between us, and Daniel's eyes snap up to meet mine. My face warms. "She's not really my daughter, Daniel. She never was. Let's not turn it into that."

His face seems to soften but his body remains rigid, tight and tall in the straight-backed chair. It was odd. At times, he reminds me of my father. I often feel as if I am a child in his presence.

"The Ori created her for a reason, and you're her mother for a reason. We haven't seen the last of her." He tilts his head, and his voice drops low. "She'll be an adult once we see her again. All grown up. Then what?"

"We treat her like any enemy," I reply. I wonder if he can hear my voice quake as I speak. I think of nights in the dark, on my side next to Tomin's still form, the lull of his breath rocking us in the night. My fingers slide over the mound of my stomach, and I feel her move. She kicks, she spins, she trembles under my touch. I wondered in those nights if her eyes would be dark like mine, or if she would have the clear, empty eyes of the Ori.

"How can you do that?" Daniel's voice pulls me from the past.

I shrug. "What's that old saying here? 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'" I grin. "I've been taken over by a Gou'ald, stoned, burned, and impregnated against my will by renegade ancients." I raise my hands. "But I'm still here."

Daniel nods slightly and takes a timid bite of his food, but his eyes don't leave mine this time. As if he is holding on. As if he is waiting for me to admit a secret he thinks that I know.

The canteen buzzes around us. The sound fades in my ears like white noise. My death waits somewhere in the form of my little girl.

_What doesn't kill you makes you stronger._

Fingers grip a vanished mound, a void where love once was.

Strength is, after all, for those with something left to lose.


End file.
